News

Dublin Airport was the 14th-busiest in Europe during July, handling more than 3.3 million passengers.

In the year to July, Dublin Airport was also the 14-busiest, with 18 million people passing through the gateway. London Heathrow was the busiest, with 45.9 million passengers, according to new data from Airports Council International (ACI).

In the year to August, Dublin Airport saw 21.2 million passengers using the facility – 6pc more than in the corresponding period in 2017.

The Dublin Airport performance so far this year puts it firmly on track to handle more than 30 million passengers during 2018, having just missed that figure last year.

The airport said last week that it also handled 3.2 million passengers in August, which made it its busiest August ever.

The airport has benefited from new services to destinations such as Beijing, Hong Kong and Seattle, while services on a number of existing routes have expanded.

Next year, new routes to Minneapolis and Dallas will commence.

Dublin Airport has experienced significant expansion of passenger numbers in recent years, putting pressure on state-owned DAA, which controls the airport, to keep pace with major infrastructure requirements.

Construction of a €320m runway and associated taxiways and other infrastructure is expected to begin later this year, while the DAA is also spending hundreds of millions on other projects such as the development of new aircraft stands.

It has also just recently unveiled plans to revamp one of its immigration areas.

New figures from the European arm of Airports Council International yesterday showed that in the seven months to the end of July, Dublin was slightly busier than Zurich, which handled 17.6 million passengers in the period, and behind Paris Orly, which handled 19.2 million passengers.

The amount of freight passing through Dublin Airport has also risen, climbing 7.5pc in the year to the end of July to 86,002 tonnes.

But the freight figure is significantly below that of Zurich Airport, which handled almost 209,000 tonnes in the period.